Theory of Happiness
by morgankit
Summary: During the calm before the storm, Komachi is still a curious little thing who still thinks that all samurai are just weird, so she approaches one to see if he is.


**Theory of Happiness  
**by morgankit**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I acknowledge the creators and manufacturers of this series (Kurosawa, GONZO, etc.) and I take no claim of the series nor do I desire to make profit on this prose.  
**A/N:** One shot. Footnotes at the end.

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It was achingly hot in the afternoon with the midday sun bearing down on the farmers and even the shade under the trees was not shady enough to cool off under. Komachi stayed where she wouldn't bother anybody, sitting in the shadiest spot under a thick tree. Okara_-chan_ was called to her parents to take care of her baby brother, so Komachi now overlooked the clearing area near the bamboo forest alone where the boys continued playing Warriors with Big Uncle Kiku_-noji_. They had created such a fuss together in the hot sun that Komachi started sweating and panting, needing to sit and cool down.

Komachi had a big smile on her face when Kikuchiyo ran back and forth with the boys at his heels, screaming and shouting and bursting with the thick exhaust from his head pipe.

Through the busy racket and noise the boys where making, Komachi's attention wandered to the houses that surrounded the clearing when some people suddenly moved away from the area. They took their laundry and bowls to the other side of their houses.

She the spotted Kyuuzo out of the corner of her eyes as he was walking languidly towards a stool and sat before a small table. He had shed himself of his long red coat, apparently it was too hot for him to keep wearing it in the mid day heat, and carried his double sheathed scabbard at his side. Carefully, he placed his swords down to lean against his left leg, and sat with his back straight and his eyes closed. Komachi saw his thin, bared shoulders heave gently. He must have been exhaling to cool off.

She looked at his sheathed swords resting on his body. Komachi vividly remembered the two blades making long, echoing noises as her eyes tried to follow his movements when he fought Kanbei that time.

As all the samurai were, he was scary. He still is scary. Even though Komachi liked all of the samurai and they were all kind to her and to the villagers, the samurai in red was the only one who gave her a twinge of fear whenever he was around. He wouldn't hurt any of the villagers, she knew that – Kanbei told her and Sister that – but he was just so… weird!

Since that awesome fight between him and Kanbei, Komachi wasn't able to get near enough to the red warrior to determine for herself if he was really all that bad that her sister and Katsushiro made him out to be. Before they made it back to Kanna Village, Kirara told her that she didn't feel as though Kyuuzo_-dono_ was an appropriate addition to the samurai (Komachi vaguely knew the connection between Kyuuzo and the Magistrate's weird son). However, when Kirara returned and they collected and conversed at the village, she said that Kyuuzo was a great warrior, and that Komachi must give him every ounce of respect that was deserved for all of the samurai. Even Katsu_-noji_ beheld the red warrior with high regard.

It confused her to no end! Her sister had a strange way with old men, indeed.

And Kyuuzo was a very strange man. He was unusually tall (not as tall as Kiku_-noji_ or Kanbei, but still really tall), and he looked too thin; almost bony from what she saw of his slender legs under his red jacket. Now that he was stripped of the jacket and in his black body suit, she saw that he was indeed too thin, but still had evidential muscle mass. He had a deep voice that almost didn't sound completely natural when it was coming out of such a small body, but she hadn't heard him speak much, so maybe he spoke differently around Sister or Kanbei. His shocking hair was one of his features that stayed in her memory. It never seemed to wave in the wind and always shone a bright corn silk colour in the sun.

What was the most different about him, Komachi thought, was his eyes. She was never close enough to him to notice his eyes. They were too small and narrow for her to see, shrouded behind his thick blond bangs.

Those cautious eyes where now open and staring throughout the fields and the people in the village. He was concentrating on suspicious movements.

Komachi's curiosity was overwhelming her. He was samurai, and he was nice enough to accept Kanbei's invitation to help the village. So what was so bad about him before Sister and Katsu_-noji_ changed their minds?

She saw his eyes slide to follow her movements when she started walking slowly towards him. Turning his head slightly, they regarded each other in silence.

Komachi shivered a bit when the samurai gazed at her, not harsh or intimidating, but she was finally able to see his eyes up close and understand further why he was so fearsome. They were narrow and slender, with a barely there fold of thin eyelids, shadowed by his hair and deeply outlined by his thin, arched eyebrows. He had small pupils, and his irirs' where the colour of dried blood. They were much dimmer than her own auburn coloured eyes.

Komachi didn't know what to make of this slender and talented samurai. He wasn't so scary up close – his powerful figure was intimidating from far away – but she hated to think about what he would do if she accidentally did something to offend him. She kept staring at him and didn't say anything.

She smiled instead.

The red warrior's lips kicked up in a smirk when he saw her filled with teeth.

Placing his scabbard behind him, Kyuuzo reached across the top of the small table for a piece of square pink paper and placed the white side upwards. With delicate fingers, he folded the paper into a triangle, unfolded it and did the same to the other side.

The farm girl's gaze followed his hands and she leaned in a little closer to see the perfectly concise folds he made on the coloured paper. She noticed his nails where even and his fingers long and unblemished, though she couldn't see the hard calluses on his fingertips as he handled the paper.

Kyuuzo's eyes never left his work on the paper. He folded it and folded it, concentrating as he would in a duel, and sensed the little girl move closer to his side in order to see what he was making.

Komachi sat on her ankles and continued to stare at the origami he was making. She looked back and forth from his delicately working hands to his calm and blank face. His hair fell in front of the right side of his face.

Turning the papers around, he pulled out two pieces hidden inside the folded mass, making two tails, one that he then pinched to make the bowed head of the crane. Komachi saw with wide and happy eyes as Kyuuzo turned towards her and held the perfectly folded crane with both hands, delicately pulling the bottom of the neck and tail, causing the bird's wings to flap.

Komachi giggled in fascination as she watched the bird fly within the samurai's grasp.

Gently, Kyuuzo slowly held the paper crane out with one hand to the farm girl, who reached for it just as slowly and grasped it just as gently.

Getting up from the ground, Komachi cupped the crane in both hands, admiring the simple light pink and white colours that imitated the bird's graceful plumage. She looked up with a big smile and saw the calm face of the red warrior looking back at her with kind regard. His half lidded eyes were soft, even with the hard icy overtone that still gave her shivers.

Kyuuzo laid his forearms on his thighs and watched as the little farm girl gave him a deep and polite bow, with the crane held gently to her chest. She popped her head back up with that great big smile and then turned to run back into her Sister's house to show off her prize.

He watched as she ran away, a small smile gracing his lips. Kyuuzo picked up his scabbard to rest on his shoulders and in between his legs and let his eyes droop shut as he exhaled and rested once again.

Sister was right, Komachi thought as she skipped through the village to her home. Strong samurai were weird, but they were all really nice.

e n d

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--- Takes place before the third battle in Kanna villiage (episodes 15 or 16).--- The title is partly inspired by the song "Koufukuron" by Shiina Ringo.  
--- The baby that Komachi's friend Okara has on her back is – what I've concluded to be – a boy. It's never confirmed officially.  
--- Honorifics and suffixes are taken very seriously in _Samurai 7_. I wanted to keep their names true to the character when they speak, so while Kirara calls Kyuuzo "Kyuuzo_-dono_", and Kanbei, "Kanbei_-sama_", Komachi would call Kyuuzo, "Kyuuzo", like she calls Kanbei, "Kanbei". I think Komachi can get away with calling them only that, because she's young and really doesn't think much of social status and sees everyone as an equal.  
--- Kyuuzo making origami cranes was partly inspired by his origami filled apartment in the fanfic: "Remnant" by Orisa.  
--- I love Komachi. I've loved her right from the beginning, I can't help it. I love Komachi almost as much as I love Kyuuzo. I had to write something with the both of them immediately. My apologies if this is a tad OOC; it's my small interpretation of the characters.

Comments and critique awesomely appreciated!


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